WAI history

1905: Peter Jones department store in London is acquired.

Their original shop soon expanded, and reopened in much larger premises in 1908, selling everything from fish to flowers.

In 1914, John Lewis Senior handed over the entire managerial control of the Peter Jones shop to Spedan, who became the shop’s chairman and its nominal managing director.

In 1919, he set up a staff council (the forerunner of today’s Partnership, Divisional and Branch Councils).

Spedan’s first formal profit-sharing scheme was approved in 1920 and the first distributions were made that summer in the form of shares in Peter Jones Limited.

After Rose left in 1924 due to poor health, the business grew with branches in Windsor and Gerrards Cross.

From 10 April that same year, The Gazette began to refer to the staff as Partners, and the famous slogan ‘Never Knowingly Undersold’ was first used at Peter Jones in 1925.

From 1926, therefore, Spedan was effectively in control of both businesses and could begin to reorganize the Oxford Street store on the principles established at Peter Jones.

In 1928, Waitrose was awarded a Royal Warrant by King George V to supply groceries and cleaning materials.

On 18 April 1929, one year after his father had passed away, Spedan Lewis signed the First Trust Settlement, transferring his own shares in John Lewis Ltd, Peter Jones Ltd and the Odney Estate to a board of trustees on behalf of the Partners.

The company next began to broaden its base by acquiring some provincial stores: two in 1933 and two more the following year.

In 1940 the business again doubled in size by acquiring 15 more department stores and 4,000 more staff at one stroke.

In 1944, the partnership purchased the South Essex grocery business Schofield and Martin, which had 12 shops in its chain.

Waitrose continues to evolve today, but its past remains alive: the Temple Fortune branch in Finchley Road, north London, which opened in 1945, is the oldest Waitrose store still trading.

Twenty-one years later, on 26 April 1950, Spedan signed the Second Trust Settlement, effectively ‘giving’ the Partnership to the people who work in it.

Unlike his father, who never formally retired, Spedan decided to do so at the age of 70, which he reached in 1955.

By 1959 it had built seven new-style supermarkets and owned 20 smaller shops.

Worked in Waitrose horley from 1977 to 79 lots of great memories, nice to Waitrose have ventured into Scotland

Hampson joined John Lewis in 1982, switching from a career as a high-ranking civil servant.

There was a right royal occasion in 1984, when the Queen visited the Windsor branch of Waitrose during the opening of the King Edward Court shopping centre.

Meanwhile, in 1988, the company expanded its manufacturing operations through the purchase of J.H. Birtwistle and Company, a textile supplier based in Lancashire.

The company expanded into the mail-order sector in 1993 with the purchase of Findlater Mackie Todd & Co., which sold wine through the mail and was the basis for Waitrose Wine Direct.

1994: First Waitrose food & home store opens in London, marketing a full range of supermarket items along with a selection of household goods from John Lewis department stores.

It was not until 1995 that Waitrose began gaining additional revenues from opening its stores on Sundays and also completed the installation of electronic point-of-sale and ordering systems, which gave it better control over inventory and the ability to automatically reorder stock.

The new initiatives had an almost immediate effect on sales, with Waitrose posting a 13 percent increase for the year ending in January 1996.

Although continuing to rely on word-of-mouth advertising over the huge television ad expenditures of its larger rivals Tesco, Sainsbury's, and Safeway, Waitrose did step up its print advertising budget during 1998 in a campaign aimed at encouraging its customers to spend more money.

By 1999 the number of Waitrose outlets had been increased to more than 130.

During 2000 the company acquired 11 shops from Somerfield plc, which were then converted to Waitrose outlets.

2001: The U.K. arm of Buy.com, an online retailer of electronic goods and computers, is acquired.

Fast forward to 2004, and the division had expanded to more than 200 shops, including acquisitions from Morrisons and Somerfield.

Waitrose moved into the convenience store market in 2008, with the opening of a smaller branch in Nottingham.

In 2009 the firm signed a deal with Alliance Boots which allowed Boots to operate branded pharmacies in Waitrose shops and Boots shops to sell Waitrose food products.

In October 2011, Waitrose opened a Fulfilment Centre in West London as part of its Waitrose.com Online Delivery Service.

The partnership between the companies ended in 2012 having been deemed unsuccessful, which led to Boots replacing Waitrose products with items from Irish retailer Musgrave's SuperValu chain.

On 16 June 2016 the shop's most southerly branch opened in Truro, Cornwall.

September 2018 saw Waitrose and John Lewis launch their first joint marketing campaign, emphasising their employee-owned business model amid an increasingly challenging retail environment.